


Let's Make

by Signel_chan



Series: Let's Live Life [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, Humanstuck, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-06-30
Packaged: 2017-12-04 20:04:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/714546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signel_chan/pseuds/Signel_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Don't just make the best of everything. Have fun with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Let's Make Magic

Their meeting was by complete accident, with a busy Jade running down a city street trying to make it to some unknown location when she ran straight into a guy who looked no older than her, who was running in the opposite direction. The very second she hit him, she forgot all about where she was headed, and instead decided to focus on this strange man that she had slammed into, trying to apologize to him for what she did.

“Listen here,” he said when she got a loud “sorry!” out to him, “I don't need you apologizing to me. It's as much my own fault as it is yours, so I'll say sorry first. This is the one time that the 'ladies first' rule doesn't apply.” The way he spoke, with a calm voice and a smile on his lips, attracted Jade to him, and made her want to know more.

And more she got, as they began to speak more and more, pushing their accidental meeting behind them with every word. “My name's Jade,” she told him at some point, as they attempted to locate somewhere to sit and continue on with their conversation. “I'm not really that interesting, but I guess I like animals and music and talking to people!”

“You sound more interesting than me, Jade. I like music too, but I'm also into games and I guess you could call me an amateur magician. My friends do.” He chuckled, before thinking for a moment, adding, “The name's John, by the way. John Egbert.”

“Well, mister Egbert, I'd like to see a magic trick, if you can do any.” He took that as a challenge, pulling out a deck of cards and having her pick one and study it before taking it back. When he retrieved it from the deck again, it had his phone number written across its front. “That's pretty cool, actually. Would you mind showing me more sometime?”

The enthusiastic nod he gave made her grin. “Of course I will. It's in the cards, after all. They want us to see each other again, and I wouldn't tempt their rage.” That wasn't the end of their discussion, which involved jumping from many subjects, bringing them closer and closer with every shared word. It eventually ended when Jade remembered where she was supposed to be going when she had hit him, and she left in a hurry, but not without making plans for an informal date of sorts.

That “date” turned into a real one, which became two, which spiraled into a romance that she never thought she would have. After all, no guy ever seemed to want to be with someone as strange as her; they always passed her by and went after girls with talents that she definitely didn't possess. But John was different, and he made it a point to prove that as often as he could. The magic tricks, which were cute at first, eventually faded when they got serious, and by the time that everyone knew they were together, it had been months since he had performed anything. He didn't feel that they were appropriate for a relationship like theirs, and she agreed.

The first people to find out about what was going on were two of John's friends, one of which lived in the same apartment building as him, the other of which was someone who lived on the other side of town. As this discovery happened while Jade was beginning to move her things into John's place, the friend in the building found out first, and the news quickly spread to the other friend. A confrontation occurred one of the days when Jade was bringing boxes of clothes up, and it involved her getting cornered by a dark-haired man and a blonde accomplice.

“You're Egbert's girl, huh?” one of them, the one with the dark hair, asked, at which she gulped and nodded. “You seem nice enough. How long have you been together?”

“Long enough for me to be moving in with him, I guess. Half a year, maybe?” She shrugged. “Why does it matter to you two, anyway? You his brothers or something? I wasn't told that he had brothers, so...”

The blonde laughed. “No, but we're his bros. Gotta keep him clean of cheap, trashy whores and the like. You don't look like you're bad, though, so you're good to go.”

“Um, whores? Is there something about John that I don't know?”

“No, the one who goes after the whores is Dave.” A finger was pointed at the blonde. “I figured John would be smart enough to date a sensible woman. It's a pleasure to get to meet you, John's lady friend. I'm Karkat.” This time, he stuck his whole hand out, at her, before pulling it away because both of her hands were full. “One of these days, you and him need to hang with my lady and me, and definitely not Dave.”

While the blonde stood in a stunned silence, Jade smiled. “Oh, aren't you both polite and really scary at the same time, Karkat! I don't know if you knew this, but my name's Jade, and I swear I am not a trashy whore.”

“I believe you, and I bet John does too. You seem nice, so there aren't any problems here that I see.” Karkat took a step back and gave a bow. “Sorry to be leaving your presence, but I've left my dear Terezi out in the car, and if she yells at me for it, I might lose my fucking mind.” With that he was gone, leaving Jade and her arms full of boxes alone with Dave, who was just staring at her.

“Excuse me, but do you have a problem with me? You aren't saying much, what you have said kind of hurts, and you're looking at me weird...”

“What? No, no problems here. Just thinking. I'm kind of a fun guy, and you and John are always welcome to chill with me. He knows this. Just...if you and him do anything, please don't involve me. The last time I babysat, bad things happened.” He put a pair of sunglasses on over his dark eyes and smiled. “One more thing, if you order pizza, expect me at the door. People here are stupid and always deliver it to me.”

He was gone before she could say a word about any of that, leaving her shaking her head in confusion as to why a guy like John would have such interesting friends, when he was so down-to-earth. She asked him the next chance she got, and his response was to laugh and tell her that they were from a dark time in his life, but they were greater than they seemed.

She believed him, but was very wary with letting them know anything about their personal lives, due to the fear that had overcome her when they had cornered her that day. It took a lot of bravery to allow John to tell either of them about things that happened: they didn't know of their engagement until almost a month after it happened, and they were the last to know of any wedding plans.

It was at about the same time that they were planning their dream wedding that they made two friends that would stick with them forever. It was a bright summer day, and they were walking home from the park, when they saw two people enter the apartment building that they had never seen before. “Hey, excuse me, but are you new?” John asked them, being polite. There was a male and a female, both of which looked at him like he was crazy. “New here, I mean. We live one floor from the top.”

“Third floor,” the woman, an obviously unnatural blonde, said in response, grabbing her male companion's hand, “and we don't need whatever you're trying to sell us.”

“We're not selling anything.” Jade would have attached the word “bitch” to the end of that, but she figured that being nice in this situation was best. “We're just trying to be polite. Sorry for even trying to be decent neighbors.”

That statement broke the ice, it seemed, because the blonde turned and looked at both of them. “I don't know, you look like you're fishy people. Trying to preach at us, maybe? Ain't happening. Come on, Tavros, let's go make sure our stuff is still upstairs.” They disappeared then, but the incident stuck with John and Jade both, leading them to properly introduce themselves a few weeks later, but fading apart until circumstance brought them back together nearly a year later.

The events of that year in-between the meetings were slightly important to creating that particular circumstance, however. For starters, they were married within that year, at a grand ceremony that everyone who attended truly enjoyed. It wasn't exactly big, but it was fancy, and it was something that was remembered through pictures for the rest of their lives. There was also their honeymoon, which was lovely and wonderful and took place on a beach that they would probably never go back to again, just to preserve the memories. And then, there was the getting into the daily grind that was known as the married life.

As all married couples do, they would fight. Nothing major, always about who needed to do what or what was better. There was one incident, though, that went above and beyond all of their previous fights, and it began when John noticed a little note that Jade had put on the table, one that listed out things that needed to be done. “Hey, nice choice of color,” he said, picking up the piece of paper and flicking it a few times. “Blue's definitely the best color there is.”

Jade looked up at him from where she was sitting on their couch. “Excuse me, but it's not. I only used it because I couldn't find my green pen, which, by the way, writes in the best color.”

“No, your pen writes in green, and I'm pretty sure I just said that blue is the best, so you must be wrong.” He laughed and put the note back down, before choosing to sit next to her, attempting to drape his arm over her shoulder, but she pushed it away. “What's up? Why can't I cuddle with my beautiful wife? Something wrong?”

“I don't want a dirty liar touching me like that.” She jumped up and headed straight for the door, with him following her, asking what had gotten into her. “You're lying! Green is the best!”

“Is that what this is about? Jade, it's just a color. Calm down.”

She shook her head in defiance and opened the door, nearly whacking him with it. “I'm leaving, you ignorant fool. If you can't see that my favorite color is best, then you don't deserve to have me around.” Stepping outside of the apartment, she slammed the door shut, leaving John standing on the other side, completely in shock at her behavior.

By the time he opened the door to chase her, she was down two floors, knocking on the door to an apartment whose occupants she sort of knew. “Hello?” a female voice asked, as the door opened, revealing the unnatural blonde hair of Vriska. “Oh, it's you. What do you want?”

“Which color's better, blue or green?” Jade crossed her arms over her chest and waited for an answer, but all she got was a wide-eyed response. “Well? Which is it?”

“I'm scared to answer, because you seem like you're a bit crazy, and if you're crazy I don't want to answer wrong. The last thing I want to have to do is hurt you for attacking me.”

Jade was going to tell Vriska to answer the question, but John had gotten to her by then. “Jade!” he shouted, tackling her. “What the hell has gotten into you? You're normally calm and collected and nothing like this!”

“Yeah, well, I'm passionate about my favorite fucking color!” She glared at Vriska, who was still staring at her with her eyes wide open. “Now answer! Blue or green?”

“Blue! Now leave me alone, because I don't want to be asked anything else!” The blonde closed her door, leaving John and Jade alone in the hall area. As John reached for her arm to grab it, she smacked him away, storming back up the stairs. With her gone, he took the initiative to once again knock on the apartment door. “I said I don't wanna...oh. It's you.”

“Sorry about her. She's being weird for some reason, and I don't know why.” He sighed, hoping that his apology would work.

It did, as Vriska opened the door a bit more. “Women do that sometimes. I would have figured you'd know that, since you live with her and everything. If Tavros was here, I'd have him vouch for me that I can be a lot worse.”

“I'll take your word for it, but Jade has never been like this. Ever. She whines sometimes, but she doesn't lose her mind and yell at me...I wonder if something's wrong.” As he said that, he noticed that Vriska was playfully rolling her eyes and shrugging. “What, do you think this is funny?”

“No, I don't. I'm just thinking about all the things I know that make a woman swing like that, and I'm wondering if there's something you're missing. Go to her. Ask her how she is. Make her feel loved. That's what I'd want if I was in the situation I'm thinking she's in.”

The words sounded cryptic to John, but he thanked Vriska for her advice and made his way back upstairs, where he tried to enter his and Jade's apartment—just to find that the door was latched closed. He knocked a few times, saying “Let me in, Jade. This isn't funny.”

“Sorry, only beings who like the color green are allowed in. I'd suggest finding a room somewhere, because you're not welcome here.”

“First of all, this is stupid. Secondly, all my stuff's in there so I would need to come in to get it. And third thing, this is not the way you treat the man you love! Now let me in before I destroy your green pen, wherever it is.” He was trying not to be angry, but it was showing. “Jade, I'm warning you. Let me in or it's gone.”

She tapped her fingers on the inside of the door, which let him know that she was right there and being belligerent. “Sorry, but those of us in here want nothing to do with you and your hating personality. Please come back when you've seen the error of your ways.”

Two things about what she said stood out to him. “There is no error here! This is just you being stupid...and since when is there more than just you in there?”

“I am not being st—“ She abruptly stopped in the middle of her word, unlocking the door and opening it for him to come in. When he did, she was curled up into a ball on the floor, a frown on her face and tears in her eyes.

“Jade? What is going on here? What am I missing?”

She sniffled, before wiping a tear that had fallen down her cheek away. “I'm sorry about what I just did. I wasn't thinking straight at all there, going off on you like that. Blue's just as good of a color as green is, and I should have realized that sooner. Forgive me?”

“Yes, I forgive you, but,” he got down on the floor and curled up next to her, “what's wrong? Why are you crying?”

As he watched, she brought her hands together and laced her fingers between each other, sighing as she did so, before pulling her arms close to her chest. “Promise me you won't freak out if I tell you, okay?”

“Swear on my life, Jade. I wouldn't get mad about anything, unless you're telling me that you've been cheating on me with Dave or something, and then I might lose it. But you're not going to tell me that, right?”

“Of course not! I'm just, uh, not sure you want to hear this.” She sighed again, as he told her that yes, he did want to hear it, whatever it was. “John, listen to me. You do not want to hear this.”

He came a little bit closer to her. “Oh yeah? What is it, and I'll be the judge of that.”

“Okay, but you asked for it.” After taking a deep breath, she began to explain rather quickly: “Well you see, I think something went wrong the last time we, um, played around. And by something, I mean I'm convinced that the condom didn't work.” He let out a little gasp then, but she didn't seem to notice it, instead choosing to look down at her hands. “I'm sure you know where this is going, but let me finish. So I noticed that I've been very weird lately, doing strange things and acting different and, yeah, there have been some changes when it comes to, er, feminine things, but I'm not completely certain yet but unless something weird is happening then I am probably absolutely positively having your baby, John.”

No words could come out when he tried to speak, and the only sound was a high-pitched squeal that hurt their ears. He moved close enough to her so that he could wrap his arms around her and squeeze her into a big hug, which she tried to squirm out of. “You're taking this a lot better than I figured you would...”

“Jade, do you know what this means? This means that we're going to be parents! Isn't that just the most exciting thing in the world? Why would I take this badly? This is great!” He let go of her and got to his feet, before dashing for the phone. “I've got to tell my dad about this! He'll be so proud!”

“No! You can't tell him, not until we know for sure, and then you can tell him all you want.” She got up as well, walking over to him and taking the phone from his shaking hands. “Just do that for me, okay? Keep this a secret until we know it's for real.”

Naturally, he told everyone he could the second she wasn't around to stop him, which was a terrible idea, he later realized, when he had to tell everyone that something happened and that no, they wouldn't be having a baby, not then. He hadn't lied when he first told everyone, because he was staring at the small but real picture of the tiny child that he and Jade were having when he made all his calls, but the next time that there should have been pictures, there was no child to be found, leaving him with the job of explaining to everyone that something had happened.

Everyone believed him and expressed great condolences, but the second time he had to make those calls, they were even less believing, and the third time the news was received with a lack of belief from all except a few people who knew John would never lie about anything this big. The way his voice wavered and cracked as he told everyone that, for the third time, there was a problem and there was going to be no Egbert baby pretty much proved that he was speaking the truth, and anyone who had the opportunity to see Jade in the weeks after he said it was treated to a first-hand example of a mother who had lost her child to the cruelty of life.

It was during this time that the two of them began to become close friends with the couple living in an apartment a few floors down, because they were there and caring throughout all of it. Any time they would run across each other, Tavros and Vriska both would hug Jade and be very friendly with John, which made them the perfect candidates to be the first to learn that, for the fourth (and, as Jade said, the last) time, they were going to be trying their hand at having a baby. It went over very well with them, but when told to keep quiet until they knew this one was going to make it, they couldn't do it, spilling the news to Dave, who, predictably, told everyone he knew that also knew John or Jade.

Thankfully, everything went better on the fourth time than the previous three, and there was no need to have to retract the statements that were made. That didn't mean that things were perfect, though, as made apparent by Jade's refusal to leave the confines of the apartment unless she absolutely needed to. This led to many visits by friends, not all of which were handled very well. On one occasion, Dave came over while John wasn't around, but he wasn't there for his best friend: he was there to tell Jade a joke he had heard, just to cheer her up and make her laugh.

“I don't need your jokes,” she told him, trying to get him to leave, but he was insistent on telling her whatever it was. “No, don't want to hear it. Why can't you leave me alone?”

“Because John told me to come spend time with you since he can't right now. You've been locked away long enough, miss future mom. It's time for you to experience my companionship, and you're gonna get it through my joke. Now sit down and listen.” She sighed, taking a seat on the floor where she was able to sprawl out. “Good. Now hear this. What's worse than ten babies nailed to a tree?”

“What kind of question is that? Why are you nailing babies to a tree? That's terrible! Why are yo--” He cut her off with a stern re-asking of his question, to which she answered that she didn't know what was worse.

“You don't know? Easy. One baby nailed to ten trees.” While he smiled and was proud of himself for getting the joke out without bursting into laughter, Jade was having to fight back tears due to the mere implication of the poor baby in the “joke” being ripped apart. He took notice of her tears after a few minutes. “Oh, bad topic, huh? You don't like talking about babies being dead. Kind of forgot about that. Sorry.”

He slunk out of the apartment then, not even bothering to comfort Jade in the slightest. She remained on the floor in a crying heap until John came home from his long day at work. Unlike the blonde, John actually cared and was bothered by Jade's crying, and he dropped down on the floor to lay next to her. “What's wrong, babe? What's making you cry?”

“Dave was in here,” she said as she bawled her eyes out, “and he told me the most terrible joke ever. How dare he joke about dead babies with me? Doesn't he realize that I have dealt enough with dead...babies...” Her voice became drowned out by her crying, and John wasn't sure what to do in order to cheer her up, aside from something she would most likely hate—tickling her.

His hand answered his question before it even became a question, as he started to reach over to her. “It's okay, Jade, he was just being a jerk, he didn't mean anything by it. Don't cry, because your crying makes the tickle monster want to play.”

“You wouldn't dare,” she coughed out, still crying. “I hate it when you tickle me.”

“I would dare, and I'm going to do it. I'm going to tickle you.” The moment his fingers touched her side she started whacking in his direction, smacking his chest a few times. “Careful, because the monster will tickle you more if you fight!”

The tears stopped and she leaned up a little to glare at him. “We aren't doing this. No tickling me, or you will be sleeping on the couch tonight. And I might not even let you back into the bed. Make your move, John. I dare you.”

“There's only one choice here, and you know it.” She honestly thought that her threat would have deterred him from tickling her, but no sooner than she had given a sigh of relief was he tickling her side again, causing her to scream. “Yeah, that's right, the tickle monster is here and he's going to tickle you forever.”

“If you even dare tickle me more than this I will forbid you from ever sharing our bed again! Stop this right now!” She kicked at him and smacked him more, but nothing seemed to slow his tickling, not even when she smacked his glasses off of his face. “John, I mean it, stop tickling me! I don't like it at all, and I don't think that your little girl likes it either!” The mere mention of their unborn child made him pull his hand away and apologize for even starting a lopsided tickle fight. “You better be sorry, or else she's going to be born pissed at you.”

“Come on, it's not like she knows what's going on...don't be saying things like that.” In an attempt to make his apology more believable, he snuggled up close to Jade, planting kisses on her face that she tried to get away from. “Look, the tickle monster's gone, and I'm here with you. Is everything better now?”

“No, because you tickled me when I didn't want it, but I'd consider this a start.”

He laughed and kissed her more for a few minutes, happy to be up against her, even if they were on the floor. Then he let it sink in that they were _on the floor_. “Um, Jade? Mind if we go lay somewhere else? This is nice and all, but...”

“Someone could just walk in if we're here. I get it.” She sat up and, after he got to his feet and helped her to hers, dragged him down the hall into the nursery that they had set up, with its green walls with blue flowers all over them. “Is this better for you?”

“I was thinking more of our own room, but I'm sure you've got a reason for bringing me in here and not there. What's up?” He sat in the chair in the corner, sinking down into it while Jade once again chose the floor for a seat.

“What's up? Nothing much, just the fact that this is a thing that's happening, and I'm really excited about it, and I think it's great that we're this prepared and we've still got time left and I don't know but the idea of actually legitimately becoming parents sounds so great right now and...” Jade rambled on and on, her voice becoming higher with every added thought. The excitement she expressed at that moment was something that stuck with John for years, but most especially when he got to hold their daughter, his little Casey, for the first time. That particular event sparked a rise of similar excitement in him, to the point that he was almost crying and just babbling at her and her little smile and tiny face and everything.

There was a flip side to that excitement, though, and that was the heartbreaking feelings they had felt on the three previous occasions, where instead of a child to hold and love there was just a hole and unanswered questions. Because of knowing both the highs and the lows, they were able to comfort Vriska and Tavros when they lost their first child, and they were more than willing to be around when it came time for their second one. That just made it all the more fitting that little Snow was born on a day marred by an incident involving John and Jade.

* * *

“Are you sure you guys can watch her for us? If you can't, we can take her with, but I'd really rather not have her out in this storm...” Vriska was snuggling Snow close to her, reluctant to let her go, regardless of what she had just said. “The last thing I want is something to happen to her.”

With a big smile, Jade nodded and reached out to take the little girl. “We're responsible, and we can handle her. For one, we aren't Dave, and for two, we've raised our own before. You've got to take this step and leave her with us. Trust me, it'll be okay.”

“But what if Casey doesn't like her? I don't want to leave my baby here if Casey isn't going to be nice.” Even though she was still extremely reluctant to do it, she carefully handed the child to Jade, who almost immediately put her down on the blanket that covered the floor. “Hey wait, I don't think she should be down there! What if someone steps on her?”

From where he was standing, John gave a sigh and an eyeroll. “No one will step on her. Jade's just making Snow available for Casey.” He looked down at the black-haired girl who was clinging to his leg. “Go on, go play with Snow.”

“I'm really not sure I like this,” Vriska said, starting to bend down to pick up Snow, but Casey got to her first, her hands over her mouth as she mumbled things that no one could hear. “Okay, I'll let them play. But if Snow gets hurt, I'm going to be mad.”

“She won't get hurt! Casey is gentle and kind and she knows that real babies are nothing like her stuffed animal ones!” Jade got down so she was sitting next to the two girls on the blanket, and she propped Snow up in a sitting position. “Now watch as they play nicely.”

No definition of “playing nicely” that they were aware of involved Casey grabbing a clump of Snow's hair and tugging at it, causing the baby to cry while she just looked innocently at her parents and said, “Snow baby. I like baby.”

Vriska nearly lunged at the little girl, but was restrained at the last moment by Tavros, who was attempting to stay calm and calm her down as well. “She's going to be fine. Now let's go and leave them alone, because if we stay here, you're probably going to hurt Snow more than Casey can.”

“I don't think you understand! She's hurting my baby!”

“No, I do understand, but we don't have time to be dealing with this. She will be fine here, so we're leaving. Bye, guys, and thanks for watching her for us.” With one last grumble about how she was _not_ going to be fine, they both left.

“Now, now, Casey, no pulling hair. If she's bald when her parents get back they're going to be very, very mad.” John joined the three of them on the floor, sitting right next to Jade, who nudged him a bit with her shoulder. “Now let's be nice to the baby, especially since we're just borrowing her.”

Casey let go of Snow's hair and climbed into her parents' laps, pretending to purr as she did so. “Want Snow baby. I like baby.”

“Oh, you like her? Maybe we can talk her parents into letting us borrow her more then, because she's a real cutie.” Jade pulled her off the blanket and into her arms, where she smiled down at the tearful child. “Maybe she'll be like a sister of sorts to you. Do you like that idea, Casey?”

“No, I like baby. Not sister.” The girl poked Snow's back with one of her toes. “That Snow. Snow not sister. Snow baby.”

“Yeah, Snow's a baby, and she isn't your sister. But she can be like one. Is that okay?” The little girl nodded when John said that, and he was thankful that he didn't have to argue anything beyond that, especially with a nearly three-year-old girl who wouldn't even begin to understand the fact that Snow was as close to as sister as she was going to ever get.


	2. Let's Make Plans

As it turned out, John's thoughts about never giving Casey a little sibling were wrongly placed, because no sooner than the front door closed and latched did Jade turn to him and sweetly smile. “It's nice having a baby in here with us,” she said, playing with Snow a bit. “Kind of a bit of preparation, maybe.”

“Preparation? For what?” He looked at her, noticing the shine in her eyes and how genuinely happy she seemed to be. “This babysitting thing isn't going to be a full time job, is it?”

“It might be, but that's not what I'm meaning. You remember how I was gone yesterday when you got home? Where did you think I was?” He shrugged, because he didn't really know how to answer that. “John, you're so difficult! Go get my purse. It's in there.”

Not understanding what she was implying, he got up, Casey coming with, and walked over to the shelf where Jade's purse was. “Why can't you just tell me what I'm getting?”

“If I tell you, you won't believe it!” She actually ended up being correct about that, because when John's fingers brushed against the glossy cover of a picture, he let out a surprised yelp, and when he actually grabbed it and pulled it from the purse, getting to look at it, he nearly burst into tears to join his excited babbling.

“Daddy, what's wrong?” Casey asked, tugging at John's leg. He scooped her up and showed her the picture—but she didn't quite understand. “Peanut. That's a peanut.”

“Casey, sweetie, it's not a peanut. It's a baby.”

The little girl looked from the picture to Snow, who was gurgling and kicking away as Jade played with her. “No, that's a peanut. Snow baby. Silly daddy.”

“How do you even know what a peanut looks like? Casey, I'm telling you, that's a baby. It's mommy and daddy's baby.” The picture went back into the purse and John and Casey returned to the floor to be with Jade. “And we want that baby.”

“Was Casey peanut baby?” the girl asked, giving her dad a wide-eyed look where he could see every bit of glimmer in her green eyes. “Where peanut baby at? I no see peanut baby.”

“I won't answer that until you speaking in correct sentences, Casey. Just because Snow's here doesn't mean you get to act like you're not smart.” Jade glanced at John, her stare scolding him for letting Casey speak incorrectly for as long as she had been.

After whining for a few seconds, the little girl complied with her mother's word. “Was Casey a peanut baby? Where is the peanut baby? I don't see it.”

“Thank you, sweetie. Yes, you were a peanut baby once, and you were a perfect little peanut. And this one is somewhere safe and will be for a long time. You'll know where it is when it's ready.”

“Is it at the store? I wanna see the peanut baby, mommy.” Casey batted her eyelashes and tried to get her way through being cute. “Please and thank you!”

Even though her behavior really was adorable, Jade had to shoot her down. “You can't see the baby, not yet. It's not at the store, and we can't go somewhere to buy it. It's living inside of me right now, growing bigger and bigger every day.”

“You ate the baby?” The little girl's eyes widened even more and she looked worriedly between her mom and Snow, who was still kicking her legs. “Don't eat Snow too! Snow has a nice mommy and daddy. You can't eat her.”

“I didn't eat the baby, Casey! That's where babies come from!” Jade sighed, not wanting to have to explain the entire thing to someone who would never remember it. “Besides, the peanut baby will probably stay a peanut baby for all of its life...”

Casey tilted her head. “I don't get it.”

“You'll get it someday, okay?” John wrapped his arms tight around Casey and snuggled with her, making her squeal with excitement. “For now, let's just worry about watching Snow for her parents, and let's not talk more about the peanut baby.”

“Okay, daddy. We can play.” She squirmed out of his arms and flopped on the floor next to Snow, flailing her arms and legs around like the baby was. “I'm being baby Snow! Love me, love me!” Her antics made her parents both laugh, and that was the way the next few hours went, with Casey trying to be just like Snow but failing, causing her parents to laugh at her behavior.

This changed when they were all sitting on the couch, Snow cradled in Jade's arms, Casey watching over her and trying to play peek-a-boo, but hitting John every time she moved her hands. “You girls play together so well,” he remarked, looking at them with a smile on his face. “It's like she's family, and you know what family does?”

“Live together?” the little girl replied, squealing a bit at the idea.

“No, they kiss. Why don't you go ahead and kiss Snow's cheek? We won't tell her mommy and daddy you did it.” It sounded like a great idea, and very innocent at that, but there was always a catch, and this one would destroy the peaceful afternoon they'd been having.

Everything happened at once: right as Casey leaned in to kiss Snow, the baby started coughing and spit up in Casey's face, causing her to scream, which made Snow cry. And it was then that the front door opened and Vriska and Tavros came in, greeted by two children making altogether way too much noise. “What happened while we were gone?” Tavros asked, taking Snow from Jade's arms. “Did they fight? Damn it, Vriska, we should have just brought her with us. They wouldn't have judged us for it.”

“No, no, they didn't fight. Casey loved playing with Snow, but then your daughter there just spit up, and Casey's face was her target.” As Jade explained that, John took the crying Casey out of the room to clean her up. “Other than that incident, everything was fine. How did things go with you two?”

They looked between each other, Vriska grumbling and Tavros biting his lip to avoid giving an answer. It took Jade asking again for Vriska to pull a folded-up picture from her pocket. “Went about as well as we thought it would. There's, for sure, a fucking monster in there. Again.”

“Oh, that's great!” Jade got up from her chair and snagged the picture from Vriska's hand, unfolding it to see what it was—and was greeted with an image much like the one that John had pulled from her purse hours before. “Wow, it's bigger than I was expecting...what, is it going to be born right at Snow's birthday?”

“They think it'll be around then, yeah.” Vriska grumbled some more, before sighing. “I don't want it. I didn't want Snow. Fuck, I didn't even want the one we killed. I hate kids.”

“Then why do you keep having them?” Jade was in the middle of asking that when Dave came strolling into the apartment, a case of beer in his hands. She finished her question before looking at him with raised eyebrows. “Um, Dave? What are you doing here?”

He lifted the case up to show everyone what it was. “I've come for the party.”

“What party?” Jade's eyebrows raised a bit higher, just waiting for an answer. Meanwhile, Tavros, who had groaned the second he heard Dave mention a party, tried to leave the place without anyone noticing, but Vriska grabbed his arm and forced him to stay.

“What party,” Dave repeated. “Oh, just something that's known as the 'god fucking damn are you even capable of using protection' party. It's also known as the 'wrap your willy' party, the 'put it away' party, and, my favorite, the 'if you're going to be naked in bed together can you please keep a blanket between you because you've already got one kid' party.” He then dropped the case of beer on the floor and gave a slow clap. “Congrats, dude. How are you going to make a minimum wage job support two kids?”

“I'll make it work,” Tavros said, looking down at Snow as he spoke. “It's my fault that Vriska's pregnant again, and I'm going to make sure that I take care of her, and Snow, and the new kid. I will do it. I swear.”

Dave snorted, but didn't say anything else on the subject. “Want a drink, anyone?” he asked, squatting down to open the case and pull out a couple cans. “Come on, I spent a whole ten dollars on this stuff.” He popped open a can and drank from it, smacking his lips when he was done. “Mmmm, piss flavor.”

For reasons everyone knew and understood, Vriska turned down the offer, and for reasons that only she and John knew, so did Jade. “I'll take one, since you did get them because of me.” Tavros handed Snow over to Vriska and took a can from Dave. “Which, in hindsight, it was a bad idea to tell you first about this. Should have known you'd pull something like this.”

“You know it.” Dave chuckled, taking another drink, before asking, “Where's John? He at work or something? He's normally out here being a dweeb by now.”

“He's cleaning Casey up right now, but knowing him, he's probably in the middle of telling her a long story or something.” Jade gave an awkward laugh, because she was thankful that John wasn't there for all of what had happened. The last thing she wanted was for him, or even Casey, to spill her news, because she remembered all the fuss about her previous pregnancies and subsequent miscarriages, and she had no idea if that was the face to befall this one. For her sake, she hoped this one would get far enough to be considered safe in her mind, and then she could share. Otherwise, it would just be a secret that only her family knew.

But, like all the previous times, John went and messed her plans up. When he and Casey came back and he saw Vriska standing there, looking displeased with the world, his face lit up. “Hey! How'd it go? Did your fears come true? Is there really another bun in your oven?” She begrudgingly nodded, and John took that as a cue to look happily at Jade. “You know what that means, sweetie? You two can go on shopping trips and compare notes and--”

“Wait wait wait,” Vriska interrupted, giving Jade a confused look. “Is he implying what I think he's implying? Or is he just being strange like normal?”

There was a moment of debating whether or not she was going to lie about it, but, in the end, Jade realized that lying would get her nowhere except maybe in trouble with her friends. “He's implying what you think he's implying.”

“Oh, sweet! I could use a shopping buddy this time around, since Tavros hates the idea so much. You're a great friend, Jade, and I'm glad I've got you here for me.” It was strange, she thought, that Vriska didn't sound like she was talking about what was going on. “You look confused. Is something wrong?”

“No...nothing's wrong.” There was the lie she was so afraid of making, but it was an innocent lie, not a big one like she was tempted to make previously.

“Hey, John, want something to drink?” Dave asked, pulling another couple beers from his case. “I brought drinks for the party, but the ladies aren't biting. You in?”

He excitedly nodded, and skillfully caught the drink when it was thrown at him. “What's the party for? Is it something good?”

“No, but I've just decided that this party is too lame for me, so how about this. I reserve us somewhere to have a real party, and we do that sometime soon. Sound good?” No one argued against it, even if Tavros seemed really displeased that there was still talk of a party that was painting him in a negative light. “Okay, sweet. I'm leaving these drinks here, and I'll catch you all later.” He stood up, gave everyone a wave, and walked out the room, before coming back seconds later to snag a few more cans, and then he was gone.

“Dave's strange, but I like him. He's a good friend.” John opened his drink, sat on the couch, and took a sip, only to spit it out onto the back of Casey's head. She started screaming and throwing a fit, which, naturally, made Snow start whining.

“We're gonna go home, I guess,” Vriska said, trying to keep the little girl from getting any louder than she was. “Thanks for watching her for us, but now she gets to spend time with her parents again.” Jade told her it was really no problem, and they left, closing the apartment door behind them and leaving the dark-haired woman in a room with a screaming Casey and a frantically trying to calm her John.

Instead of trying to help the situation at all, she walked to her bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed...just to realize that she still had the picture that belonged to Vriska in her hand. She sighed, falling backwards and hoping that everything would go right over the next little bit, not just for her and her family, but for her friends as well.

She'd like to be able to plan the future for once.


	3. Let's Make Mistakes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This installment spawns some of the greatest lines in all of the Let's Play-verse. And also things that need to be remembered for later installments. (:

Being invited to a party for adults was one thing. The invitations to those were actually fairly normal, with being friends with Dave and all. But being invited to one that was announced on the back of coupons to the local kids' arcade was definitely out of the ordinary, although not completely unexpected. After all, they _were_ friends with Dave. So when the coupons were slid under their door, John and Jade knew that they just had to go to this party, simply because the idea of a bunch of adults at Chuck E. Cheese's was something they wanted to be part of.

Oh, and also that the invitation was titled “reasons why a CERTAIN SOMEONE needs to learn how to wrap his junk.” That was the other factor in the decision, as John reminded Jade every single time she questioned why they were actually going to go to the thing. “You know you want to be there when Dave makes a total fool of not only himself, but Tavros and Vriska too,” he said, looking over the invitation for the millionth time. “That's why I want to be there.”

“John, you change your reason for wanting to be there every time we talk about this.” Jade sighed, snatching the paper from his hands. “I'm kind of dreading going, though. What if Dave, being the insensitive dick he is, decides to poke some fun at us? I'm not ready for him to be making more dead baby jokes, not after...that.”

John didn't have to ask what Jade meant by what she said. He knew she was referring to the loss of yet another child, one that they had truly hoped to get to have, and he also knew that making her talk about it was like stabbing her through the chest. She was suffering because of it, because she had hoped she wouldn't lose it like she had lost so many before, and yet she did. “If you want, me and Casey can go alone,” he offered, to which she shook her head. “What, you actually want to go?”

“Of course I want to go. Like you've said many times, I want to see all the fools being made. I just wish that I could prevent them from bringing up things I'd rather not talk about.” Before she said anything else, she took a deep breath. “But, Dave's been planning this party for a while, and I'm sure he's got so many things planned, he'll have no time to even bring it up. So why hide from something that's not going to happen?”

“That's the spirit, Jade! Now go on and get ready, since this thing is in like an hour, and you know how it's going to go. We'll be getting ready to leave, and Tavros is going to come up here begging us for a ride, and we're going to have to wait on them, and then we'll be late.” Jade laughed at John's made-up scenario, but the truth was that he was completely correct about all of it.

That led to there being four adults and two kids in the van on the way to Chuck E. Cheese's, and those same six people rushing inside some ten minutes after they should have been there. “Oh, you guys embarrassed to be here?” Dave jokingly asked once he got the chance, after a round of apologies from the four adults. “No, no, don't be. I'm not going to do or say anything to two of these lovely people who have gathered here today that will make you guys blush in shame.”

“You better not,” Jade muttered under her breath, while John thanked the blond for being so kind to them. He just gave them one of his trademark stoic coolguy faces, ruffled Casey's hair a bit, and put his focus completely on the other couple they had come in with.

“However, there are two of them that are fair game, and I will assure you that this party, held to honor the fact that they seriously could not manage to do anything right in the bedroom, will consist of a lot of teasing and making fun of them.” Dave actually lifted his sunglasses off of his eyes and visibly winked at Tavros and Vriska, who looked between themselves with extremely worried expressions. “Oh, don't seem so shocked. I warned you. This 'wrap-your-willy-or-so-help-me' party will be the best experience of your lives.”

Tavros raised his eyebrows at the assertion, but chose not to argue about it. Vriska, on the other hand, was raring to argue each and every thing about the situation, her naturally argumentative self even more on edge thanks to her elevated hormonal state. “You dare make this uncomfortable for us, and I will flatten you,” she hissed between her teeth, rubbing her very large stomach as a reinforcement of the threat. “And then I will have Tavros kick you. And then I'll flatten you again.”

“Whoa, no need to get hostile with me. I took the time to throw this party for you, and here you are, threatening me. Just take a seat, Serket, and stop looking at me like you're really going to use _me_ as that seat.” She grumbled a bunch before sitting in one of the nearby chairs, the carseat that held Snow being set on the chair next to hers. “Okay, wonderful. Placated the pregnant woman. That was step one. Step two, break out the balloons.”

He gave a tiny nod over to one of the ladies standing at the ticket counter, who flipped a switch on the wall behind her. The switch caused a whole bunch of balloons to descend from the ceiling, which then caused everyone there for the party (aside from the workers, that was everyone there) to scream. But it wasn't the balloons themselves that were earning screaming—mixed amongst the colorful balloons were carefully blown up and tied condoms that Dave had obviously put there as a hint to the most important guest.

Said important guest was not too pleased at all with the twist. “Now I understand why you rented this whole place out for this party,” he said through clenched teeth, popping one of the condoms with his fingernails. “Letting these things descend on unprepared kids and parents would not be a smart move on your part. Fuck, letting them descend on us wasn't smart either.”

“I wasn't sure if you knew what one looked like or not, honestly.” Dave kicked a couple of the balloons around, nearly hitting Casey, who was chasing them around, as he did. “So I figured, hey, why not make this a learning experience?”

They bickered on, back and forth, for what seemed like hours, so the rest of the guests took that as a cue to start doing things on their own. “Hey, Jade, let's keep Casey away from the balloons _and_ the play area, okay?” There was a hint of worry in John's voice as he said that, which caused Jade to look at him with a questioning glance. “One, I don't want her asking things about the 'weird' balloons. Two, the play area here is scary and I'd rather her not get hurt inside of it. What if she did? Who would we send to rescue her?”

“The first reason is good, but the second one? She'd be fine in there, and if she somehow did get stuck, we'd have to send another kid in after her.”

“Where are we going to get another kid old enough to understand the mission?”

With a no-nonsense feel to her movement, Jade pointed to one of the tables, where she had seen other children sitting when they had arrived. When John looked over to where she was pointing, his eyes were met with the angriest glare he had ever encountered. Except, of course, he was quite used to said glare. “Oh, Karkat's here! Cool!”

“What? Karkat?” Calculations started going off in Jade's head. If Karkat was sitting at that table, then she must have pointed at the wrong one. She knew Karkat. She knew him fairly well. And she knew that him and Terezi, the love of his life, definitely did not have any children, especially ones that had looked to be around Casey's age. She looked for herself, and sure enough, the dark-haired Karkat was sitting at that table, Terezi at his side, and there were two kids with them. “But how? Why? This makes no sense!”

John shrugged, saying something along the lines of “Just go with it” before joining his friend over at his table, leaving Jade to sigh, grab Casey (who was playing with actual balloons, thankfully), and follow suit. By the time she sat down, the little girl on her lap, there was already conversation happening between the three adults that were already there. “You don't just ask someone where the kids they're watching came from, John. That's rude.” Terezi spoke with a smile, even though her tone gave away that she was annoyed with John asking about the children that were with them. “Now rephrase what you said, or you're never going to get an answer.”

“But that's seriously what I have to ask! I am absolutely sure they're not yours—I would have never heard the end of it otherwise. Where did they come from?”

“Their mom, dumbass.”

“Thanks, Karkat. It's not like I haven't taken at least one biology class in my life.” Awkwardly laughing, John put an elbow on the table and rested his chin on his hand, looking into Karkat's angered eyes. “I had no idea that kids came from their mothers. Hell, I even _have_ a kid and I didn't know that. Way to go, enlightening me.”

Meanwhile, Jade and Casey both were focused on the older of the two strange kids, Jade looking at him to try to judge how old he was, Casey looking because he was someone roughly her size and therefore someone she could play with. “Can I play?” Casey ended up asking, moving her head so that she was looking up at her mom. “I will be a good girl if I can play.”

“Hold on, sweetie. Karkat, Terezi, how old is that little boy there?” Distracting them from their argument of sass with John, they both turned to Jade with smiles on their faces. “Oh, bad question?”

“No, not bad. Terezi, do you know how old he is?”

She nodded. “Sure do. Justice there is four. And Cherry over here is a little over a year old, but you didn't ask about her.”

“Their names are _Justice_ and _Cherry_? What kind of crack was whoever named them smoking?” John rudely asked, earning himself death glares from everyone else at the table. “Okay, sorry. Whoever named them should be shot.”

“How nice. Since I named them, you're implying I should be shot. How nice.” Terezi teasingly threw her hair over her shoulder and laughed. “But seriously, my sister let me name them and so I picked the best names I could think of that worked. Justice looks like a law-abiding citizen, and Cherry's cheeks are always red. I may be mostly blind, but I can see that.” She blinked a couple times, noticing that Casey had disappeared from Jade's lap. “Where'd Casey go? Did she run off? I thought you never let her get away from you.”

“Oh, I don't normally, but she was really wanting to play with Justice, and I decided to let her have her fun...they're just going to go play in the play area. No big deal, right?”

A collective gasp came from Terezi, Karkat, and John. “You didn't!” they all exclaimed, earning attention from other people who had come to the party. “Jade, please tell me that was a joke. There is no way that Casey and that Justice kid are in those tubes of death. No way.” John gave his wife a pleading look, one that she was almost sad to see. On the other side of things, Terezi was shaking her head and muttering something akin to “shouldn't have brought him along” and Karkat was trying to comfort her.

“I really don't see what the problem with them being in there is. It's not like there are other kids their age here to hurt them or anything.”

“Yes, but there are condoms all over the ground, and who knows if Dave put something in those tubes as well. We need to get them out, before something bad happens.” He stood up and walked away from the table, and she sat there for a few seconds more, looking at her friends who were still in their own world, before getting up to follow.

She was roughly halfway over to the play area before something else caught her attention. Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone, she wasn't sure who, getting down on their knees for some reason, and as she turned to look at what it was, a woman happened to run right into her from behind. “Ow!” she exclaimed, getting a good look at the petite blond who was furiously apologizing for her mistake. “No, it's okay, I understand that accidents happen. Who are you and what are you doing here? I don't think we've met.”

“No, we haven't. The name's Rose. I'm one of Dave's friends. He invited me because...well, I'm not sure why he invited me, honestly. Aside from the balloons, there's not much here that I understand. Especially not the point of this party, or why it required renting out the entire building.” Jade then introduced herself to this new lady, who seemed relieved to have run (quite literally) into one of the nicest people in the room. The introductions were cut short, however, when cheering erupted from where the rest of the people were. “Oh dear. What do you think happened?”

“With it being these people, I have no honest clue. Why don't you go find out, and I'll get back to finding my husband and daughter.”

“I'm assuming that they're the ones up in the tubes, based on where we are.” Rose pointed up to part of the play area where, sure enough, John was chasing Casey. “How he managed to get up there, I don't know, but I'd be worried about their safety if I were you.”

Her jaw dropped a bit, but she didn't say a word. Rose chuckled and walked away to join everyone else, leaving Jade just standing there, hoping that John and Casey would be okay. “Miss, that man is kinda scary,” a small voice told her as she watched. She glanced down and saw the little boy from before, Justice, standing next to her. “He yelled at me to get away from the girl, and I did, and now they're playing chase up there.”

“Get them down! No, wait, don't! I don't want you getting hurt because of John being stupid! Go back to Karkat and Terezi before you do end up getting hurt! They're worried about you.”

“Aunt Terezi is always worried about me.” He had a hint of sadness in his voice, which became evident when he told Jade, “I just wish she was more worried about other things, not me.” That was when he walked off, and she just stood there, waiting for her loved ones to get back to the floor, the haunting words of that kid floating in her head.

Once they were down, she made sure to keep them both close to her and as far away from the play area as she possibly could. It didn't matter how much John insisted that it was actually fun up there, because she was so completely done with that whole situation. In fact, she was done with the party, wanting to leave as soon as she could.

Six hours of total humiliation (not of them, but of Tavros and Vriska) later, and they were cleared to leave. Over those six hours, Casey had gotten to talk to Justice more, forming a shaky but real friendship with the new boy, Rose had come over again to talk and learn more about Jade and her family, and, of course, John and Karkat aided Dave in some of his humorous schemes. It wasn't until everyone who had come over in the van was buckled up and ready to leave that the part of the party that Jade had missed while initially talking to Rose was discussed, but when it was, she was ready to punch someone.

“What was all that cheering about back when I was in the tubes?” John had asked, while putting the van into reverse. “I wasn't able to see a thing, aside from what looked like someone on the floor. Care to explain?”

“Yeah, all I saw of it was the person on the floor. What happened?”

Sharing a disappointed look between themselves, Tavros and Vriska both began to fiddle with their fingers. “Well, uh, it seems you missed the proposal, which sucks,” Tavros meekly said, trying to hide a nervous stutter. “It was a wonderful thing, and it would have been cool if you had seen it.”

“You're kidding, right?” Jade asked after a moment of stunned silence, one in which she looked back at the two who were both smiling. “No, you can't be kidding. What the fuck inspired this decision? I thought you two were happy living an unmarried life with each other!”

“I thought we were too!” Vriska replied, turning her smile into a grin. “But I guess that Tavros decided that it was time to change things up—as if kids I didn't ever want to have weren't enough of a change—and so he gave me the silliest Pokémon-inspired proposal ever. I cried, and definitely did not refuse it.”

Unlike Jade's question of disbelief, John asked something a bit more pressing. “Where'd you get the money for the ring? You work a minimum-wage job, with three mouths to feed. How did you manage to save up enough to get her any kind of decent ring?”

“I'm not really sure, honestly,” he said after a couple seconds of contemplating. “Probably has something to do with the fact that I haven't been the only one working for the past few months. I mean, Vriska getting herself an easy job to give us some extra money couldn't have anything to do with it.”

“Are you saying that you weren't going to ever propose to me if I didn't get a job?”

“I wouldn't have ever been able to, my love.” That's where the conversation ended, because before any more questions could be asked, the two started talking amongst themselves, with the occasional kiss or laugh coming from them.

And although Jade was a bit bummed out that she didn't get to see the proposal, she was glad to know that they were happy, and that everything seemed to be all right for them.

* * *

Two nights later, while on the computer video chatting with John's dad, Jade received a message that contained a link to a video that she was told she “had to watch right then or else.” Thinking that it was a cute cat video or something of that sort, she had it playing in the background while still on the webcam. Within five seconds, she regretted that decision.

It turned out that the video she was sent was a recap of everything that had happened at the party, from the balloons dropping, to the proposal, to just little random interactions with some of the guests. There was highly inappropriate flirting between Dave (who seemed to be the one holding the camera) and several guests. There was a part where the camera was fixated on Snow, and then turned to focus on the little Cherry girl that Terezi and Karkat had brought with them. And there was a part involving Casey and Justice in the play area, something that Jade herself hadn't ever been aware of.

“What are you watching?” the elder Egbert asked her, snapping her back into the reality that she _was_ on webcam with him. “Is it anything I would be interested in?”

“Oh, just something from this party we went to a couple days ago. Nothing big.”

He chuckled. “I believe you, Jade dear. Now turn it off until after we're done discussing these things. I want these plans made in stone before John gets home.” She obliged, mostly because she did want to be able to surprise John with what they were planning, but partly because she wanted to be able to actually react to the video without being watched.

That led to, of course, there being a five-person viewing group the next day, with Casey watching to see herself, John and Jade watching to see everything that went on while they weren't paying attention, and Tavros and Vriska watching to relive one of the moments where their lives changed forever.

The one comment anyone had afterward, aside from Vriska's offhanded remark that she looked absolutely terrible throughout the video (which couldn't have been helped, since she was in the later stages of her pregnancy) was that, of all the places to make a Pokémon reference, a marriage proposal was not one of them. But Tavros just smiled and asked to get to listen to it over and over again, because, as he put it, “Asking her to reach level one hundred with me sounded so much cooler than asking her to get old at my side.”

It could have been worse, he later pointed out. “I could have easily made a reference to the daycare man in that. He doesn't know where the eggs come from, after all.” John and Jade couldn't argue against that one.


	4. Let's Make Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this done since February, but I was waiting until I had the final chapter mostly finished before I posted it, because there is a bit of a twist/cliffhanger ending.

Nestled in the far back corner of a restaurant just down the street from the apartment building, six people sat at the table, talking amongst themselves as they waited for their server to come and take their order. Unlike most dinners they had, though, this wasn’t the normal six people. There were John and Jade and Casey, and Tavros and Snow, but instead of Vriska being there, an older gentleman rounded out the group. No one really seemed to mind that he was taking her place—in fact, it seemed to be a very good thing that he was there instead of her. He had already said he would pay for the meal, and he was there to bring good news to at least some of the people present.

This was, of course, because he was John’s dad and he loved his son and daughter-in-law and granddaughter and their friends very much. “It’s my pleasure to do something like this for people who mean so much to my family,” he explained as they were seated. “It’s a shame though that not everyone could join us tonight. I have missed Dave and his unintelligible rapping, as well as Vriska and her, to put it nicely, interesting look on life.”

But because of the elder Egbert’s kindness and also his unfortunate pick of restaurant, the logical sixth person for the group would be joining them. They had been seated for just a few minutes, telling the older man about life and things that had gone on since the last time he had been around, when their server came over. The smiles that erupted on everyone’s faces should have clued him in to who it was, but he looked at the woman who had come over to their table for a few seconds before joining in on the smile. “Ah, hello there Vriska. I wasn’t aware you were joining us for tonight’s meal. Tavros said something about you having to work.”

Without so much as batting an eyelash, she replied, “I am at work. Have you guys decided what you want yet?” The three adults who had known that she was their server laughed, leaving the old man to scratch his head and actually get a good look at Vriska, who was dressed in a slightly modified version of the workers’ attire at the restaurant. “Stop ogling me, mister Egbert. I know I look a lot different than I did the last time you saw me, but it doesn’t give you the right to be staring at me.”

“My apologies, but I wasn’t aware you worked here. Your uniform, ahem, fits you a bit differently than everyone else. It honestly makes you look like you’re way heavier than I remember you being.” His statement was extremely blunt and incredibly rude, but he had the version of Vriska stuck in his mind that was several years younger, not the one that was standing before him. “Did something happen to you that John never brought up?”

If looks could kill, the one she shot John would have left him dead in an instant. “Oh, nothing too terribly bad. Fell down the stairs, messed both of my knees up pretty badly. Bet he didn’t tell you about that. Or the fact that I was like seven months pregnant when it happened.” She shifted her gaze over to the high chair where Snow was. “But not with her. No, that was the second time. I can’t believe he didn’t mention that to you either. She  _was_  born on the day they got in a car accident.”

“Oh, that little girl is yours?” The elder Egbert looked at Snow, who was babbling to herself and banging a sugar packet on the side of the table. “I figured, since she’s so dark, that she was Tavros’s child from someone else…”

“You think he’d be able to get lucky with anyone else? No, mister Egbert, he couldn’t. Snow is mine, and this baby here,” she motioned toward her stomach, which didn’t really need to be pointed out since it was incredibly enlarged compared to how she used to look, “is definitely his and will probably be just as dark as its sister is.”

“So you two are married, yes? Unmarried people should not be procreating this much, especially when they work jobs like you two do.”

She rolled her eyes, ignoring his question to instead actually do her job and take everyone’s order. He didn’t handle that very well, sitting in his seat with a hurt look on his face for the rest of the time she was around, but the second she left, he turned to Tavros and asked him the exact same thing. “Well, uh, not yet. We’ll be married when we’re ready for it, which is not now. Definitely not now.”

“As long as you have the intent to marry her, I guess there really is no problem…” He sighed, which caused Tavros to nervously sigh in return. “Oh, is there something wrong with what I asked?”

“Yes, actually. I’m a bit, uh, bothered by the fact that you’re treating us like we’re lesser than John and Jade just because we’re not married. We love each other just the same, but we haven’t had the desire to get married yet. That doesn’t make us any lesser, does it?” Grabbing Snow’s sugar-less hand to hold it, he looked at the older man and sighed once more. “And we’re not bad because we’ve had kids before we’ve gotten married. That’s just how it happened, and it’s an okay thing.”

Before his dad could reply, John cleared his throat and spoke. “Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself. Dad here always told me that him and my mom were never married. In fact, she had me and dropped me off on his doorstep and that was that. Isn’t that right?”

“Hm? Oh, yes yes indeed. That’s how it happened.” Everyone at the table could tell that there was a hint of sadness in his voice as he said that, but no one had any idea why it would be there. After all, John had sounded like it was a funny story, so why would the old man be upset about it?

Whatever the case, the spirits at the table changed after Vriska had brought them all their drinks and their meals and actually sat down with them for a moment. That was when the old man spoke again, making sure to focus more on his own family than their friends. “As Jade knows, I have come here to tell about a gift I have for you, and I believe it’s about time to reveal what it is, before we get too engrossed in our meals to care. So, without further ado, I’d like to say that I am taking you all to Disneyland. And by ‘all of you’ I mean the ones that I am related to.”

“Why invite them out to dinner then?” John asked, even though he had a huge grin on his face. “Why rub it in that we get to go and they don’t?”

“I thought to invite them, change hotel reservations and the like, but this trip is happening very soon and, after getting a good look at them both and their current state of living, I think leaving them here is best.”

Once again, it was Vriska who rolled her eyes. “Is this another jab at the fact that we’re poor?”

“Not at all. It’s more for your own well-being, because I would hate for you to have to walk around the park for days and days while in your current state. Add in the fact that it seems your daughter is barely at the walking age and I think it would just be a miserable experience for you all.” He gave a look that expressed his true condolences, and Vriska bought it, but Tavros was less accepting.

“So you’re saying you’re not going to take us because of things you think? That’s kind of mean. What if we’ve wanted to go, huh? What if some of us have had dreams of meeting Peter Pan and Tinkerbell and you’re just crushing them?”

“I wasn’t aware that Snow was old enough to want to meet the Disney face characters. You can take her when she’s old enough to truly grasp the moment.” The sarcasm that laced his words made Tavros not want to give any sort of response, for fear of more of his dreams being crushed. “Now then, we leave Thursday night.”

It wasn’t until after the meal that anyone expressed any dislike of that, and even then, it wasn’t to mister Egbert’s face that it was expressed. “Jade, you helped plan this, right?” Vriska asked as the other woman started to leave the table. She said that yes, she had indeed helped, and the blond continued. “Okay, there’s a tiny little thing that’s bothering me. No, wait, two things. One, today’s Monday. Thursday is in a couple days. You’re leaving me with a very little bit of time to have you help me with stuff. Two, how long is this trip going to be?”

“Oh, like a week. There’s not much to do at the park, so it may be shorter. I know why you’re worried, and I’m sure everything is going to be fi—“

“Everything is  _not_  going to be fine, Jade! What if the kid decides it wants to be born while you’re gone? Who’s gonna watch Snow for us? Oh, right, Dave is. And he’ll end up killing her. I can’t have you be gone at all while it’s completely possible that I could have this baby. You’re going to have to postpone this trip.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t. Everything’s been paid for already. I promise you that you’ll be able to keep the little one in you long enough for me to leave and come back, and I promise you that nothing bad is going to happen to you. Of course, if you keep working, all promises are off.” Jade pushed her chair in and started toward the front of the restaurant, Vriska following her. “All the walking and lifting this place makes you do is just going to make the chances of that kid coming out a lot higher.”

Vriska stopped in her tracks for a second, before hurrying to catch up with Jade. “Did you just tell me to stop working? I…can’t do that! We need the money this job brings us!”

“And I need to go on this trip with my family! You’ve got to make your choice, Vriska. Mine has already been made.” And with that, the dark-haired woman rejoined the rest of the group and they all left, leaving Vriska behind to continue on with her work for the night.

~~~

The few days before the trip went by in a flash for John and Jade both, for different reasons; while John worked with his dad to get everything packed up and ready for a family vacation, Jade was having to spend almost every moment she could with Vriska, reassuring her that absolutely nothing would go wrong while they were gone. When it was roughly an hour before departure, she wasn’t sure if she had gotten her point across, but if she hadn’t it was too late to change anything.

Once the guys got everything out into the car to take to the airport, John’s dad had a brilliant idea that involved everyone that was present. “Gather around, all of you,” he said to them, looking from his family to Dave, who was there simply because he had nothing better to do, to Tavros and Vriska, who were playing with Snow. “I want to take a picture of this fine group before we leave, to mark the memories of my stay here. Organize how you’d like.”

“A picture, huh? Mind if I go change into something a bit more photogenic?” Dave sarcastically asked, not expecting the positive answer the older man gave him. He left and returned within minutes, wearing a “I’m with stupid” shirt that had an arrow pointing to his left. When they got set up for the picture, he made sure to have Tavros being the person that arrow was pointing to, much to the darker guy’s chagrin. No one argued about it though, and mister Egbert even got a chuckle out of it.

When everyone was finally situated, he took one look at them and shook his head. “Won’t do. We need to get the children up off the floor. No heads below anyone’s knees.” To remedy this problem, he found a stool for Casey to stand on, and asked for Snow to be held up (but not cradled) by one of her parents. The resulting picture from that was one that he swore he would keep and send copies of to everyone that was there.

On one side stood Jade, with Casey clinging to her leg while standing on that stool, and John. They were more focused on each other than the camera, but no one seemed to mind. The middle was where Dave stood, flipping the bird from behind John’s shoulder and unapologetically wearing that shirt that showed his feelings toward the kid situation with Tavros and Vriska. As for those two, Tavros was holding Snow in front of him, letting her legs dangle and having her laugh, while Vriska was next to him, striking what she referred to as the “sassiest” pose she could think of, holding her hands on the sides of her stomach.

After everyone looked at the picture, it became time for farewells and well-wishes, because the time for leaving was rapidly approaching, and if they were going to get to the airport (which wasn’t even in their town, but the next one over), they needed to be on time. There was no time for long-winded goodbyes, though, and when Vriska tried to start getting dramatic in one last attempt to have Jade stay, that was when they knew it was time to go.

They piled into the van, made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and, after getting bags checked and through security in one piece, were ready to embark on a great adventure. Boarding the plane (and having to turn all electronics off) couldn’t have come soon enough for them, because it gave Jade an excuse to not have to talk to Vriska for at least a little while, and she was growing extremely tired and annoyed with the pregnant blond. She could only take so much begging and whining, and that threshold had been surpassed long ago. When she was seated in her airplane chair, with John in the aisle seat, Casey in the middle, and her at the window, she was ready for the vacation to start, for the stress of real life to be gone and the fun of Disneyland, somewhere she hadn’t been since she was little, to overtake everything.

Motherly duties came before anything however, and when Casey started to cry about the plane ride, she had to give her daughter a comforting hand and tell stories for the duration of the flight, with John smiling at them both the whole time. The crying started all over again once they had to take a second flight, this one from their intermediate destination to Southern California, and by the time they were landed, with all their belongings in their possession, and outside of the airport getting their rental car, both parents were absolutely tired of hearing the crying, and were very thankful that they’d be spared from it for a little while.

Then again, things never worked out as they were supposed to, and when John and Jade tried to cuddle up together to sleep that night, they had to figure in the presence of Casey, who flat-out refused to sleep in a bed that wasn’t hers unless her parents were with her. And since she was a cuddler just like her parents, that meant that they didn’t get to enjoy each other’s company like they had wanted to.

Casey just so happened to have an amazing grandfather who was willing to watch her for a few hours after she woke everyone in the room up early in the morning, just so that her parents could get close and sleep a bit longer before they started on their adventure for the day. Even though it was the beginning of a weekend, the parks weren’t expected to be too terribly crowded due to it being the end of September, which meant shorter lines and less time having to push through people to do stuff.

This trip, flawlessly planned down to the last detail, would have been terrible if there hadn’t been someone to watch Casey for any of it, because she was too little to ride some of the rides, and it was the ones she didn’t meet the height requirement for that John and Jade absolutely wanted to go on. So of course, her grandpa would watch her and take her on other rides that she could ride while her parents went on the ones she couldn’t. Because she was at the age where she could recognize words that were on signs, she knew that there was a ride that had her name in it, and therefore she dragged her grandpa on that silly little train countless times in a row. He didn’t mind it, because it meant she was happy and her being happy meant that her parents got to be happy.

By the time the day was mostly over, Casey had ridden just a few rides with her parents, mostly the little ones near the entrance of the park, and a few more rides with her grandpa, although she did tend to stick to that train. John and Jade, on the other hand, had gone on as many rides as they could have managed to, and regrouped with the others wet and very obviously high on adrenaline. “I think the longest we had to wait was like half an hour, but that’s okay, because we rode Splash Mountain three times today and each time Jade screamed like she was going to die,” John said all in one breath, wrapping his arm around Jade’s waist. “But it’s okay because I thought I was going to die when we rode some of those rollercoasters. Especially the one in the dark. What was that one called again?”

“Space Mountain, John. That’s what it was called. That’s the same name I’ve told you every time you’ve asked.” Jade nuzzled her slightly wet cheek up against John’s and grinned. “Now that we’re all together now, shall we go on something that all four of us could handle?”

“Is it the Casey train?” the little girl asked, tilting her head and putting her hands over her mouth in a surprised gesture. “I like the Casey train.”

Jade was just about to say that they could indeed ride that train, but a shake of the head from the older man in the group made her rethink that. “No, how about we take the big train around a couple times looking at the other rides, and decide from there? There’s lots of stuff we could all ride, but we need to decide what we’re gonna pick.”

Five minutes later, before they even boarded the train, Casey had her eyes set on the next ride she wanted to embark on. “That one,” she proudly said, pointing at a facade on one of the buildings, that was colored and patterned in a way that was appealing to her three-year-old mind. “I wanna ride that one.”

“Casey, can we not ride that one? That may give Poppop a headache, and you don’t want to do that to him, do you?” Although John had a hard time remembering the names of some of the rides, due to their similarities to others, he recognized that particular ride just from having seen pictures of it that were accompanied by horror stories. “Let’s pick something less…annoying.”

“John, don’t lie to the girl. I’ll be fine if we ride it, trust me. It’s just a simple ride with a repetitive song and it’s no big deal. In fact, I’ll even sit next to her and hold her hand through the ride, if you so want.” For being an old man, John’s dad simply was the coolest, and his approach to the situation meant that there really was no other choice than to get in line for it’s a small world, even with Jade looking for some excuse not to have to ride it and John trying to be insistent that it would end badly for them.

What they didn’t expect was to end up standing in line behind a single rider, one who Casey, at one point, mistook for her dad. “Oh? Who are you, little cutie?” the woman asked once she noticed the little girl poking her leg. “Are you lost?”

“Sorry, she belongs to us. Guess she thinks you’re me.” John went to grab Casey away from the woman, but happened to notice the woman’s face, which he ended up just staring at for a second, before looking at the rest of her. She was shorter than him, but aside from her height, feminine features, and slightly different hair style, it was like he was looking into a mirror. “I guess I can see why,” he remarked after a moment. “You look strikingly like me.”

“I could say the same back to you, sir.”

The awkwardness between the two continued as they got on the ride, because the woman ended up in the seat right in front of the group. For the duration of the ride, with Casey trying to sing along with the song and Jade trying to bury her face in shame of even riding it, John and his dad both focused on the strange woman, one because of the extreme similarities between them and the other because he was trying to come up with a way to explain the situation. Mister Egbert found that explanation as they were getting off the ride, when he curiously asked the woman, “By any chance, is your name Jane?”

“Yes, sir, it certainly is. How do you know that?” She checked herself to make sure her name wasn’t exposed anywhere, during which time the elder Egbert pulled his wallet from his pocket and got a picture out from it.

“How do I know? Because,” he said, looking at the picture before handing it to her, “you look an awful lot like my daughter I haven’t seen in years.”

Both John and the woman gave him the most shocked look they could manage (while looking exactly the same as they did). “Your…daughter?” The words escaped their mouths at the same time, before they looked at each other again. And again. “No…you mean?”

“I think we’re having ourselves a bit of an Egbert family reunion.”


	5. Let's Make New Friends

“Why didn’t you ever tell me I had a sister?” John gave his dad an incredulous look over the table, where, on the other side, the elder Egbert and Jane were both sitting. “I thought I was just abandoned on your doorstep. That’s what you told me!”

“John, it’s a long story as to why I didn’t let you know about her. And that’s something I’d rather not get into while we’re sitting in such a public place. I have no idea how many of these people are looking for a trashy romance novel-esque story.” He squeezed Jane’s hand as he spoke, as if he was still having a hard time believing that the woman was really sitting right next to him. “Shouldn’t we find Jade and Casey now, anyway?”

As if they were the same person, both of his kids shook their heads at the same time. “No, dad, you’re going to tell us this story. I’m sure Jade’s having fun riding rides with Casey right now,” John said, while Jane looked pleadingly at her father.

“I’ll just give an abridged version, how about that?” The suggestion appealed to both of the dark-haired people he was with, and he took in a deep breath. “Your mother was a bit crazy. Convinced she was the heiress to a certain baked goods company that I will not refer to by name. We were happy together, raising you both, but one day she just snapped, shutting me out of her life. I begged and pleaded to be let back in—and she responded by shoving you, John, into my arms and telling me that she had no son nor no husband. And from then on, I vowed to never think about her or the daughter she had stolen from me again.”

“What about the picture you have of me, then?”

“That, Jane, is from the last time I had any sort of correspondence with her. I sent a letter containing a picture of John, so she could see how he had grown, and in return, she sent a picture of you.” He sighed, giving her a tearful look. “I didn’t think I’d ever get the chance to see you again. I was convinced I had lost my little girl.”

She stood up and hugged him after he dissolved into tears from saying that. “Don’t worry daddy,” she whispered, much like a young girl would, “you’ll never lose me again. So maybe I’m older than you remember, but I’m still your daughter, and you can baby me all you want to make up for lost time. It’ll be fine.”

“I still don’t understand why I wasn’t ever told I have a twin sister.” John also stood up and joined in the hugging, but focused more on snuggling his sister than his dad. “I would have spent so much time searching for her…”

“That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you about her, John. I didn’t want you looking. For all intents and purposes, you didn’t exist to your mother, and if you had somehow found Jane, it would have spelled trouble for us both.” He sniffled, tears still streaming down his cheeks. “So what happened was best, and this fortunate meeting here at Disney is the greatest thing to ever happen to the Egbert family, hands down.”

“I know this is a weird thing to say, especially at a moment like this, but I’m not quite ready to be considered part of the Egbert family. It’s just too sudden of a change, dad.” She pushed her face against his teary cheek, and he let out a small sigh. “Yeah, I know, you want it to be like nothing was ever between us. But something was, and that something is making it hard for me to accept the fact that I have a dad and a brother and…”

John tried to finish what his sister was saying. “…you need a moment to accept the fact that we’re real and here?”

“No, more like, I have to accept the fact that my mother was more crazy than I thought, that she wasn’t just some psychotic woman who believed she was the heiress to the Betty Crocker company.”

“Please,  _please_ , don’t refer to that company by its name.” Their dad’s voice was low as he said that, but it quivered with sadness. “I’d rather not hear about again it for as long as I live.”

“Understandable. You’d think I’d not want to hear it either, but the food that company makes is too good to let someone crazy ruin it for me.” Jane gave a soft laugh, but hugged her dad tighter. “I’m so glad to have you now, both of you. Finally I’ll be able to pick up the pieces of my broken childhood and have a life with my family…unless, of course, you’re just going to leave again.”

“Jane, we have to leave eventually. John’s got a life of his own, and so do I. But we’ll stay a bit longer than we planned, just for catching up, how does that sound?”  
She smiled and pulled her face away from her dad’s, just so he could see the smile on her lips. “I love the sound of that, daddy. It makes me so happy…”

“Then it’s settled. We’ll be here an extra week or so.” John, who had been intently listening to his sister’s voice just to become used to it, began to shake his head rather violently at the suggestion his father had made. “Oh, what seems to be the problem? Don’t you want to stay in sunny southern California a bit longer?”

“Yeah, staying here is nice, but what about Jade? She’s, you know, kind of wrapped up in baby things.”

“Baby things?” Jane’s eyes widened from behind her glasses. “Hasn’t she been riding rides? Doesn’t she know that, if you’re expecting, you shouldn’t be riding anything?”

John’s hand met his forehead a lot harder than he had planned it to, but he felt both so stupid and rather embarrassed in that moment that the pain didn’t bother him. “No, Jane, she’s not pregnant. Believe me, we’ve dealt with that  _enough_  that if she was, again, we’d be sitting at home, again, waiting for the inevitable miscarriage, again.”

“So then what did you mean by her being wrapped up in baby things?”

“He means that, while I’m here, I’m bailing out on babysitting and taking care of everything baby-related for our friends.” As if she had appeared out of thin air, Jade was standing right beside the trio, with her hand firmly grasping Casey’s. “And, if what I heard was right, we’re going to be staying here a bit longer? Okay, fine with me, but someone else gets to watch my daughter now. I’m done riding that train for the next few hours.”

“Okay, fair enough.” While John did appreciate the time with his dad and sister, he wanted to spend some alone with his wife. “How about this, we go ride something, and Casey can stay with her grandpa and aunt and they can all bond and get to know each other.” He looked at Jade for her reaction, which was a weary smile and to let go of Casey’s hand. The little girl instantly attached herself to her grandfather’s leg. “There, I think that sounds good.” Jane nodded in agreement, her dad ruffled Casey’s hair a bit, and the little girl giggled. “We’ll meet up with you when we’re done, I guess. See you all later.”

They linked hands and walked away, seemingly happy, but once they had gotten away a bit, Jade lost her smile and simply glared at John. “I understand that finding your sister is a cool thing, but you are ruining our family vacation by spending all this time with her and not with me and Casey!” She jerked her hand out of John’s grasp and put it behind her back. “What about us, huh? Don’t you love me?”

“Of course I love you, Jade! I’m just really happy to know I have a sister and—hey don’t look at me like that!” He noticed that she was rolling her eyes at him, and her behavior bothered him. “You are being a child right now, you know. This is not how you should be.”

“Well sorry for being upset that my husband is choosing to spend our family vacation with someone who isn’t family!”

“Jane  _is_  family! She’s not you or dad or Casey, but she is family and I’m just now getting to know her!” He forcefully grabbed Jade’s arm, which she pulled away from him, hitting an innocent passerby in the process. “What is your problem?”

She, after apologizing to the man she hit, gave him an incredulous and slightly offended look. “Did you seriously just ask that after what I said? I’ve already told you!”

“And I’m asking again because you gave a bad reason! You’re acting like I’m cheating on you with her, which I’m definitely not! She is my twin sister, and that means she is family!” He grabbed her again, and this time she didn’t pull away. “Now stop being so grumpy about this.”

“But John, I wanted this trip to strengthen our relationship, and instead it feels like it’s tearing us apart…”

“Why does our relationship need strengthening? Everything’s been fine between us, hasn’t it?” The way she tearfully looked at him, all hints of anger gone, and shook her head worried him, but he realized not long after that the middle of an amusement park wasn’t exactly the best place for the conversation they were about to have.

So, after trying to enjoy the rest of the night with her and later the rest of the family, he brought the topic up again when they were back in their hotel room, with Casey as their only company, as his dad had gone out to a late meal with Jane to do even more catching up. “Now that we’re, well, mostly alone,” he said, motioning towards Casey, who ran around the room with her arms outstretched like plane wings, “tell me why we need strength here.”

“John, I know what you want out of this relationship. You want more kids. You always have. And I…I’m not able to do that for you.” Jade sniffled, rubbing a fallen tear off her cheek. “And I guess that I’m scared you’re going to leave me because I can’t have babies for you. Your sister will convince you to stay here, and you’ll meet some beach babe and be with her…”

“That’s just silly. You had Casey, and that little girl is enough for me.” Cue them both looking at her, while she was still pretending to be an airplane until she tired herself out and flopped on the floor. “Yeah, one beautiful and intelligent daughter given to me by the love of my life is enough. No need for some stupid and fake beach woman here.”

“Well, if Casey’s enough, why did we try again?” Jade’s voice was steady, but she was speaking slowly and much lower than normal. “Why did you force me to go through it again, if one’s enough? We were both so excited to give her a sibling and we were both crushed when we lost it, just like the three before her.”

He sighed, hugging her tightly as he began to cry, tears hitting the rim of his glasses. “One’s enough now because it’s obvious another isn’t happening. Yeah, another would be cool, but every time we’ve tried, other than with Casey, it’s ended in heartbreak. I’m done trying and breaking our hearts even more. So don’t worry that I’ll leave you because you can’t have kids…because I won’t ask you to ever try again. Like I said, one’s enough.”

“You know what Dave said to me after he found out about the last miscarriage? He said that the world simply isn’t ready for another Egbert baby. No dead baby jokes, no rude comments. He just sat with me and let me cry.” Jade was sobbing hard, wiping her face on the sleeve of John’s shirt. “And then you just told me that we’d get along just fine without it, and I thought that you were saying that to be a jerk, but now I realize you were saying that because you were done making me suffer. And that itself must have taken a lot of strength, but we still need more to deal with these problems my infertility causes.”

“Why is mommy crying?” Casey piped up, her little head lifting from the floor where she lay. “And why is daddy crying too? Did we lose the peanut again?”

The adults locked eyes for a moment, before the crying intensified. “I’m gonna tell that peanut to come back,” she continued, “because you get sad ‘cuz it’s gone.”

“Casey, babe, shush about the peanut. Why don’t you come here and give your mommy kisses, because she’s very sad.” John pat the bed next to where him and Jade were seated. “And then you can give me kisses too.”

“Okay!” Jumping from the floor to the bed in a matter of seconds, the little girl began to cover her parents in small kisses, before getting distracted by the hotel room’s door opening. “Poppop’s back!” she squeaked, scampering away from her parents to the door. “Is he gonna take me to ride the Casey train again? I like the Casey train.”

Much to the little girl’s dismay, it wasn’t her grandfather at the door. It was Jane, with a bouquet of flowers in hand. “Dad said that this was where you were staying, and he told me that it should be all right for me to come in,” she explained, trying not to look at the crying figures on the bed. “I just came to apologize for whatever I’ve done wrong this early in my relationship with you, Jade, but I guess now’s not a good time.”

“Are those flowers?” Casey asked, reaching for one of the petals that hung over the plastic covering. “Mommy likes flowers. Daddy buys her them all the time and she gets happy when he gives them to her.”

“Yes they are indeed flowers, you sweet child you. But they’re for your mommy and that means no touching them.” Jane smiled down at the little girl, who retracted her hand as quickly as she could. “Could you maybe get her to come grab these?”

“Nope, can’t, mommy says I can’t tell her what to do. It’s not nice.”

The door opened a bit wider and the elder Egbert came into the room, escorting Jane in so he could close the door behind them. “Casey, you’ve got to do your auntie here a favor. Please. Do it for her and for your Poppop.”

“Fine, but just ‘cuz I love Poppop!” Casey curled her hands into fists, marched over to where her parents sat, and began beating on Jade’s leg. “Mommy, Poppop needs you!”

At the mention of the older man, the two pulled themselves apart and tried to look instantly happy. It was John who first looked to the door, and saw his sister and dad standing there. “Oh, what a surprise. I thought you’d be out later. What’s up? Why did you bring flowers?”

“I’m here to make amends with your wife, since I seem to have hurt her without intending to.”

“Jane, there’s no need to apologize to me,” Jade quietly said, before standing and approaching the woman. “The problems that I had weren’t so much to do with you as they were to do with myself and John and aspects of our relationship that have needed work. These flowers are really pretty, though…would you mind too terribly if I kept them?”

“I brought them for you, so I’d be hurt if you didn’t keep them!” The flowers moved from Jane’s hands to Jade’s, and the two smiled at each other. “I’m glad you’re not mad at me, but I am a tad bit curious about what problems you and John could possibly have. He’s only spoken positively about you in our conversations!”

Sitting himself down on the other bed and having Casey join him, the older Egbert made it clear that he was distracting the child so that they could discuss what Jane wanted to know. “Well, um, you see, I’d rather keep that between me and him,” Jade replied, silently thanking her father-in-law for doing what he had done, but knowing it was not needed right at the moment. “Married person problems, you know?”

“Do I ever know! Sometimes you just have to cry and hug it out with the one you love, I understand.” Jane gave Jade a small shoulder pat. “I do it maybe once a month whenever I’m actually with my husband. Speaking of him, he’s out of town now, but maybe he’ll come back before you have to leave. You are staying a bit longer than planned, correct?”

“It’s the right thing to do, so yeah.” As much as Jade didn’t want to admit it, she knew what she was saying was correct. Jane  _was_  family, and it would just be cruel to John if he didn’t get to spend more time with his sister and, maybe, the one she called hers. “I’m kind of curious about what kind of man a woman like you could get yourself. Is he as down-to-earth as you are?”

“Not even close, I’m afraid. He’s much more exotic and…well, you’ll see when you get to meet him.”

“Wow, so not only do I have a perfectly normal sister, but she’s living a perfectly normal life and has been even without me,” John said, looking at the two standing women and smiling. “I wonder what your life would be like if we had grown up together, Jane. It definitely would be different from what you’ve got now.”

She nodded in agreement, before adding, “Dad and I were actually talking about that over dinner! Based on what he’s told me about your life, and what’s happened in mine, I don’t think I’d be even close to the same person I am right now if I had known of you before this—and that’s okay. This was how it was meant to work out, and I’m thankful for it. Now I just hope that everything else that needs to happen happens just like it should.”

* * *

Over the course of the next few days, a lot of the family’s time was spent together, whether it was going back to the park to ride more rides or hitting all sorts of local shops and restaurants at Jane’s suggestion. It was all in the effort to get to know her better, and to let her know them, but it was also an attempt to make the time pass as painlessly as possible before Jane’s husband (who she refused to name, saying he was going to get to introduce himself rather than her introduce him) came back from wherever he was. His location was yet another aspect to the mysterious man that they were left in the dark about, as all she would say was that he was on a trip somewhere.

Then, on what was planned on being their last full day in California, they were awoken with the news that finally, Jane’s husband had come back from wherever he was, and that he would be there to meet them before they left. They chose to all congregate at one of the nearby restaurants, one within walking distance of the hotel, just in case the man didn’t live up to the standards of her dad or brother so they could return to their “home” with relative ease.

It turned out that, once again, it wasn’t John or his father that had the problems, but rather Jade, who took one look at the guy and felt some sort of shame she hadn’t felt in years and years creep over her. “I know him,” she whispered into John’s ear, her voice shaking a bit, “and I don’t think this is going to end well if he remembers me.”

“How do you know him?” he asked back, just as quietly as she was. But before she got the chance to respond, Jane clasped her hands together and gave a very brief introduction as to who the newcomer was, and he, wearing short khaki shorts and a loose green button-up, stood and took a deep bow.

“G’day, everyone. Name’s Jake. I guess you’re all here because of Janey, which is really swell if you ask me. It’s about time Jane gets some excitement in her life that doesn’t involve spiders in the shower in Australia.” He laughed, making everyone else awkwardly chuckle, but no one responded more awkwardly than Jade, her hands shaking with how much she did not want to be there. “Oh, looks like you’re a bit nervous. What’s the matter, doll?”

She took a deep breath, and with Casey grabbing her hand and petting it to try to calm her mom down, she spoke. “I can’t believe you’re married to Jane. Out of all the guys who could have been married to my husband’s long-lost sister, why did it have to be you?”  
“Have to be me? Do you think that Jane’s too good for a wild guy used to roughing it in the wilderness? Or is there some other problem?” Over the rim of his rectangular glasses, Jake focused on Jade’s face, and as he looked at her, his eyes widened a bit. “Wait a damn second, I think I know what your problem is. It’s a dumb problem, but it’s reasonable. Is that you, Harley?”

Like they had thought the same thing, both of the twins looked at their significant other and asked, “You two know each other?”

“It’s like a bad memory come back to haunt me,” Jade said, right as Jake answered with, “Hell yeah we do!” The conflicting answers had everyone present scratching their heads, until there was clarification. “When I came back from being away for a year, Jade here was the one who had to put up with my shenanigans and get me through school. She was a real blessing, and I wish we had kept in touch after we graduated. Funny how we end up here, together again.”

“I don’t want to hear that nice stuff, Jake. You know what happened between us, and why we didn’t keep in touch.”

He covered his mouth in apparent shock, before letting out a gasp that was clearly faked. “You mean, you do remember all those things I did to you?”

“You refused to take me to our senior prom because you were going to go hiking that night and didn’t want to have to reschedule. I’m fairly certain I’ll never forget what you did.” There was tenseness in the air caused by their banter, and John was holding on to Jade’s arm to restrain her from attempting to lunge at Jake. “Now answer me, why are you, a classless jerk, married to such a sweet woman like Jane?”

“Because I love her and she loves me, and she’s willing to deal with all my quirks. I’m sure she’s a way better fit for me that you ever could have been.” He wrapped Jane up in a hug, planting many kisses all over her face and neck, in a display that forced John to have to tighten his grip on his wife’s arm a bit tighter. Once the kissing stopped, and Jade’s rage cooled off a bit, Jake added more to his answer: “I did a lot of soul-searching after graduation, and I realized that the girl I had shoved into my high school plans would never be the one I’d marry, and I’d need to find some gal who was looking for an adventure. And that’s when I found Jane. We quite literally ran right into each other, walking down the same path going different ways.”

Jade didn’t bother responding, choosing instead to pick Casey up and walk outside holding her in an attempt to calm herself down. “Sorry about that,” John apologized, looking from his sister to Jake and back to his sister. “She gets like that sometimes, and it’s best to just let her cool down on her own. Woman things, you know?”

“I don’t think she likes us very much…” Jane set her gaze to the floor and sighed. “We can’t help it, I guess, but it’s certainly not her being a woman that’s making her be so…snippy towards us. I’m just going to accept the fact that Jade does not like me or Jake, and we’ll leave it at that.”

“Don’t say that!” John shook his head at his sister’s words. “She’s just anxious to get home, and with all this stuff it’s been hard for her. I’m sure she’ll get along with you fine if you ever decide to come out and visit us.”

“Sorry, chum, but it’s not going to happen if your wife can’t forgive me for being a stupid teenage boy way back when. It’s not like I’d have treated her the same way if me and her had dated as adults…” Much like his wife had moments before, Jake sighed, before running one hand through his hair. “She’s stuck on what I did in the past, that’s that, and I’m not going to spend any more time with her unless I have to.”

John immediately chose to look at Jane, who was looking back up and in his direction, tears welling up in her eyes. Anger bubbled inside of him, which he chose to ignore, simply because there was no point in getting mad about things out of his control. By fate and bad luck, this had happened, and he didn’t need to make a bad situation worse. “I understand,” he muttered, before choosing to leave the restaurant as well, finding his wife and daughter outside, Jade crying much like Jane had just been about to be. “Oh, what are you crying for? You just made things terrible between me and my sister.”

“These aren’t sad tears, asshole,” Jade snapped back, as she continued to cry. “These are happy tears. Relieved tears. I’ve got you, I’ve got Casey, I’ve got everything I need, and seeing Jake there being happy with your sister made me realize that. I used to really love that guy, you know. He was my everything, and then he broke my heart and left. I moved on, found you, and fell in love again, and he did the same with Jane. That’s amazing. He’s a dick, but that’s amazing.”

“So you just made things incredibly awkward between all of us because…?”

“Because I love you, fuckass.”

Casey playfully covered her ears at the sound of the second expletive, before scolding her mom for saying such a bad thing. “Mommy, love is good, but bad words are bad!”

“Sorry, baby, I didn’t mean to say that around you. Mommy just got really excited about how much she loves your daddy, and nothing’s going to change that.” Sniffling a couple times to collect herself, Jade eventually put the little girl on the ground (who then chose to instantly cling to one of John’s legs) and pace a bit. “Now what do I do? I’ve given a terrible impression in there, and I already know Jane doesn’t care for me, and Jake…yeah, this is bad. Do we just leave?”

“No, Poppop’s here! I like Poppop!” Even if Casey hadn’t squealed that at just the mention of leaving her grandfather behind for a bit, the two adults knew that leaving wasn’t actually a viable option. The only thing there really was for them to do was to go back inside the restaurant, rejoin the others, and apologize for everything. Jade did it with a believable smile, and the little issues that had transpired between her and the others seemed to be smoothed over for that time.

Everyone was able to be cordial towards each other for the rest of the time they were together, and by the time they were gathered at the airport, ready to separate back to their own lives again, there seemed to be no hard feelings present. Hugs were being shared between everyone, Casey was giving lots of kisses to her aunt and uncle that she didn’t really know, and, most importantly, the siblings and their father were able to group together for what would be the last time for a long while and cry on each other’s shoulders, Jane crying on her brother’s shoulder more than anything. It took a good hour or so to finally say goodbye to the two California lovers, and as the group of four began their way through airport security, they could hear them screaming farewells at them—causing everyone, especially the elder Egbert, to shed a few tears.

Once those four were all cleared to be in the main terminal, they separated even further, since John’s dad was returning to his home rather than his son’s. That caused more crying, and a whole lot of screaming, since Casey was definitely attached to her Poppop, and she did not want him leaving. “I’ll come see you for Christmas,” he promised, ruffling her dark hair and making her smile a bit, “and I’ll bring you lots of gifts. But I’ve got to go home now.”

“Thanks, dad, for letting us have this trip. It ended up being pretty amazing.” John, even with the evidence of having been crying, grinned and hugged his father. “I can’t believe we met Jane and got to spend this time with her.”

“That wasn’t part of the plan, but if it was to happen anywhere, where better than at Disney? It really is a place where dreams come true.” The older man gave everyone one last hug and kiss, before taking his suitcase and walking the complete opposite direction in the airport from where they needed to go.

The trip home was much like the one out to California, filled with a crying child who needed comforting, and absolutely no comfort. But, instead of having to go to a hotel to try to sleep (where said crying child wouldn’t sleep in her own bed), they were back at their apartment where everything was going to return to normal, and that meant getting their first good night’s sleep in two weeks, which, as soon as they got home and everything unpacked, they all went into their beds with the intent of sleeping.

There was a knock at the door sometime that night, which woke both John and Jade up. They had drifted off for just an hour or so, reveling in the comfort of being in their bed with only each other as company, so the knocking wasn’t welcomed at all. Neither was the presence of the child being pushed at them when they opened the door. “We just got home,” Jade said with an accompanying eyeroll when she saw the child. “This isn’t the time for us to be babysitting. I’ll do it tomorrow, okay? Right now, we’re getting some sleep.” She motioned for John to close the door, but the person standing on the other side just pushed the kid more into the apartment. “Didn’t you hear me, Tavros? I’m not babysitting Snow tonight.”

“What am I supposed to do?” There was panic in Tavros’ voice as he spoke, and that was when the two noticed that his arms were shaking as he held Snow in front of them. “I don’t want to have to take her with us…”

“Take her with you where? The store? You’ve probably done that a million times now, so just do it. We’re going to bed. Come back in the morning.” That was when he stepped into their home, right as someone a floor or two down could be heard screaming; he visibly tensed up when they all heard it. “What was that? Do you know what that was?”

“That’s why I’m here.” He bit his lip and paused for a second before he continued to answer Jade’s question. “I need to just drop Snow off here so that I can get Vriska over to the hospital, since, uh, she’s in a lot of pain and…” He swallowed down hard then, biting his lip once more and actually pushing Snow into Jade’s arms. “Just for tonight. Everything will be better tomorrow.”

Another scream traveled up the stairs, and Jade realized that she couldn’t argue against him, so she willingly wrapped her arms around the little girl. “Okay, fine, but only for tonight. Come get her in the morning.” He handed off a bag of necessities that he had brought upstairs with him, thanked the couple several times, and, after he heard more screaming, went back down the stairs from which he came. As John closed the door, Jade sighed and looked at the girl that was now in her arms. “I can’t believe I just agreed to watch Snow. We seriously just got home a few hours ago.”

“Yes, well, she looks a bit sleepy. Maybe that means we’ll get to have some cuddling time tonight before we fall asleep ourselves.” Even though he was very obviously upset with the situation, John gave his wife a suggestive smile and made her laugh. “See, we can make the best of this.”

“We can, sure, but I’m still stuck watching Snow.”

At the mention of her name, the little girl waved her arms around and babbled a bit, looking up at Jade with her big brown eyes. “At least it’s her and not a newborn. Snow’s pretty chill, but I’m sure her little brother or sister isn’t so calm.”

A realization dawned on Jade as John finished his thought, and she shook her head at her own stupidity. “How could I have forgotten about that? That’s all I was dealing with before we left, how unprepared they were for Snow’s new sibling, and now we’re back and they’re probably just as unprepared and that’s why I’m watching her. That’s why we were hearing Vriska screaming.”

“No, that can’t be it. I’m pretty sure that he would have told us that she was having the baby if it was the case. Now let’s just put Snow to bed, because I really want to get to wrap my arms around you again.” He playfully smacked Jade’s rear before walking away, leaving her to stare into Snow’s eyes for a few minutes before she did as he suggested.

When they were woken up at some early hour because of their friends’ daughter screaming, both of their phones had two messages on them. One was a long explanation, beginning with yet another apology, of the events of the previous night: at about the same time they had been getting home, Tavros and Vriska had been just sitting in their bedroom, watching one of his favorite episodes of one of his favorite shows, when things started to go bad. When it became apparent that, if they stayed where they were, things would get even worse, he had taken Snow up to the apartment where she ended up spending the night, before he took Vriska to the hospital. That was where the second text message came into play, with a slightly blurry but still good quality picture of mother and new baby in a hospital bed attached to it.

* * *

As a stark contrast to his sister, Dante would choose to do anything  _but_  play video games, which made him very weird when compared to her. His parents completely understood, and didn’t force him into playing Pokémon at a young age like they had done with Snow, instead letting him do his own thing with whichever parent wasn’t occupied with playing games with his sister.

“‘tory time!" he whined one night as he was being tucked into his bed, pointing at a book on the table next to him. “More ‘tory, pease."

"I can do that for you, kiddo. Your mom’s playing games with Snow right now, so it’s only fair that you get story time." His dad grabbed the book, sat on the floor right next to the bed, and opened it to the first page. “Oh, this is a good one. Look here, do you know what that says?" When the boy shook his head, his dad read it out loud to him. “It says, ‘This book was made specially for Dante Nitram-Serket, by John, Jade, and Casey Egbert.’ That means they care so much about you that they made you a book. Isn’t that cool?”

Dante smiled and clapped his hands. “Is there t’ucks in ‘tory? T’ucks cool!” As he grew up, reading that book was something he would do on his own, no longer relying on either of his parents to have to read it to him, and the more he read it, the more he realized that maybe he was meant to be less like his family, who he loved very much, and more like the family who made the book for him.

He learned to read each of the book’s pages long before his sister learned to play Pokémon by herself, overshadowing her with his intelligence. She didn’t take kindly to her younger brother being smarter than her, and refused to let him have his book while she was around; because of this, he would sit in their shared bedroom and read while she was out spending video game time with their parents. He was okay with that, since being alone suited him better than being with them. He did prefer to be with his second family, the ones who opened him up to reading with the gift they gave him when he was young, however.

“Is everything in this book really true?” he asked one day, after reading it out loud to the residents of the apartment two floors up from his. “I sure hope it’s not.”

“Well, we may have made a few of the things up,” John said, looking at the boy who was still staring in awe at the pages of the book, “but for the most part, everything in it is true.”

“Even the beginning? I don’t think spells work by just saying ‘let’s make magic’.” The serious tone to his voice made everyone laugh, and instead of him taking it as them laughing at his words, he became offended and stormed out of the apartment, taking his book with him, and went down back to the home where he belonged, where he walked in on his parents and sister, sitting at the table, bonding over a stupid video game. He sat down in the chair next to his dad, put his book in front of him, and started silently re-reading its contents, going over every word like he had a million times before. Even though it wasn’t new material, he became so engrossed in it that he didn’t even notice the side hug that his dad wrapped him in.

“Put that book away, Dante,” Snow hissed, looking over her game to see him reading. “Stupid Casey drew me weird in it.”

“Come on, Snow, just let him read and you can try to beat Red. It’s what you need to do up there.” When the girl refused to play until the book disappeared, Vriska had to take a deep breath, rub a bit at the sides of her head, and look over at Tavros for support. He shrugged and continued with his hug, leaving her no choice but to take the game from Snow’s hands. “Okay, new plan. We’re all going to go sit on the couch and watch a show.”

Dante closed his book at the sound of that, finally noticing his dad’s hug but giving it no real attention. “Can it be the one you were watching in this? I wanna see that.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve watched through all of Avatar, so yeah, we can definitely do that.” Although he knew it was only because of the important event documented in the book that sparked his son’s interest in his favorite show, Tavros was rather proud to be able to get not only him but his daughter to sit down and begin watching something that meant a whole lot to him. It meant a lot to Vriska, too, because it finally gave her a reason to rewatch the damn show that she had been trying to get into to pass the time while the Egberts had been on their Disney vacation all those years before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of Let's Make! But, there will be a third five-chapter story about the other guy who lives in the apartment building. I just haven't gotten around to writing the saga of Dave yet. ;)


End file.
